For the universal basic income (UBI) to work it must be for all—the very poor to the very rich and those in-between. If the rich do not want the UBI, they can opt out and used elsewhere. If all received UBI, no group of people can be named or vilified for taking the money.
The unions should want a UBI because if there were a UBI, unions could focus on work place safety, training, productivity, healthcare and pensions. The unions would no longer be vilified for wanting higher wages than the nonunion workers. The unions need to get behind the UBI as part of their strategy for the future and their survival.
Union employees could possibly start their own business like I did when I received the GI Bill money to go to school. The GI Bill provided enough for me to go to school, buy groceries while working for a sheet metal union job during the day.
The people who are going to fight against a UBI would like to divide workers, unemployed, rich, race, poor, gender, lifestyle, union and nonunions, old, young—they will use any wedge they can think of to divide us even religion and education.
So, again, they only way for UBI to get an honest fair trial is for all people, eighteen years and older, to receive the extra income on top of being rich, on pensions, on Social Security, unemployed or working. All receive it so it’s not just “those people” getting it. This will save the capitalist system and our democracy, which, in turn, our country as we would like it to be—no homelessness, better education, more workers, more new businesses starting up with people who can afford to work at these new jobs without the concern of housing and transportation costs acting as a determent to their working. The younger people would have money for housing and food while attending school.
The UBI should be $2,000 a month. If union workers received this amount it would more than counter the monthly union fees that nonunion workers cite as a reason not to join unions, and possibly we could get more workers agreeing to join or unionizing their work places.
If a person wants more than the $2,000, they can work, and be more selective in the jobs they have. The power will be in their hands and employers will have to change the way they treat employees to retain them. A UBI would help strengthen the middle class, as a result of people being able to do jobs they don’t feel they can do now.
There will always be some people who need a helping hand for whatever reason, but we would be in a good position to give it. UBI at $2,000 a month and a minimum wage of $15 an hour would definitely boost our economy.
Now, we need to find the people who will support a UBI and vote for them.
The survival of American democracy requires the existence of a flourishing union work force. In a survey, 68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions. So, as an old sheet metal organizer, I say we need to go all out in organizing while the soldering iron is hot, to use a sheet metal workers tool. We should organize all workers no matter where or what kind of work they do. All workers have the right to belong to a union and all should support each other. If you, in your work place, do not know how to form a union, then do what Napoleon’s military adopted adage, ‘Jump into the battle and then figure it out.’ One of the best ways to organize is worker to worker and plan it out over a meal or coffee and talk to other union workers to see what would work best for you and also what unions are winning at this time. Just go for it. When things are in disarray, like the shit show in Washington, D.C., they might not even know what you are doing until it is too late for them to push back aga...
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